University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Kirakossian Recognized as Golfweek's National Coach of the Year
June 11, 2026 | Men's Golf
UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian has been honored as Golfweek's 2025-26 Men's Golf Coach of the Year on Thursday. Kirakossian becomes the first men's coach at UCLA to have received this national award.
Kirakossian joins UCLA women's golf coaches Carrie Forsyth (2011) and Alicia Um Holmes (2024) as national Coach of the Year award-winners from Golfweek. Voting began for this award in 1999. Kirakossian becomes the second men's golf coach from the Big Ten Conference to have won this award in the past five seasons. Illinois' head coach Mike Small won the award in 2021 and 2023.
Most recently, Kirakossian helped guide UCLA's program to a national runner-up finish at the 2026 NCAA Men's Golf Championships in Carlsbad, Calif., as the Bruins defeated Texas and Arizona in back-to-back match play events on Tuesday, June 2. The Bruins lost to top-seeded Auburn in the finals on Wednesday, June 3. In his fourth season as UCLA's head coach, Kirakossian led the Bruins to a second-consecutive Big Ten Conference title in May of 2026.
Kirakossian has been recognized as the Big Ten Men's Golf Coach of the Year in back-to-back seasons (2024-25, 2025-26). Last year, he was named as the NCAA Division I Golf Pride Grips West Region Coach of the Year, as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
During the Bruins' 2025-26 campaign, UCLA won two team titles and had six top-three finishes across 13 golf tournaments. The Bruins won the Fighting Irish Classic at the University of Notre Dame in the fall and earned their second-consecutive title at the Big Ten Championships, hosted at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon. The Bruins had second-place finishes at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, the NCAA Corvallis Regional, and at The Goodwin, hosted by Stanford University in late March. UCLA finished in third place at the season-opening Sahalee Players Championship in Washington.
UCLA produced a pair of first-team All-Big Ten selections in 2026 with sophomore Baylor Larrabee and freshman Josh Kim. Kim emerged as a strong competitor in UCLA's rotation early in the spring and won his first collegiate medal at the Big Ten Championships in May. Kim shot 8-under 202 to finish with a three-stroke lead on the individual leaderboard. Days later, he was recognized as the conference's Freshman of the Year. Larrabee finished in a tie for sixth place at the NCAA Championships, through four days of stroke play. He carded 9-under 279, including a first-round score of 5-under 67, at the national event.
Both Larrabee and Kim were honored as PING All-West Region selections by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). In addition, Larrabee was recognized as an honorable mention All-America selection by the GCAA earlier this week.
UCLA's five-man starting lineup at the Big Ten Championships and through the NCAA Championships included one senior, one junior, one sophomore and two freshmen.
